Plan for Weston Tracy

FF Digital: Modern Weapons Pack - Update

Greetings all. This is a quick update on the Modern Weapons Pack

It's been in development now for about three months...so that comes to...let's see...about one month of actual work. After the completion of the Urban Pack I was eager to get moving on a second GG pack. Now I'm right in the middle of this one, and I'm still pretty motivated. If I had my wish, I would be on this full time, and would of finished it up already, but it's probably better that it's a side project. The breaks between work have allowed me time to back off and come at each shape fresh. Often vital new solutions become apparent after a few days away. They just go unnoticed when one is buried in the details.

At this point the first 5 (of 10) models are finished. 4 are fully mapped, and 3 have shaders applied. Now that I've spent some time with TSE, the rest should move a bit faster.

It's been a bit of a rough ride getting comfortable with the process, mostly because neither the TSE show tool nor TSE itself are finished yet. I'm sure once they come together everything will be silky smooth. Specifically, I desperately miss the instant texture flush feature that was added to Dave Wyand's Show Tool Pro. I eagerly await it's addition to the TSE version.

So here are the first five: M4, Mac11, Bayonet, RPG7, Desert Eagle. Most of these are mapped and textured, but they're not quite finished, so I'm just showing geometry here.



Not pictured: AK47, FAMAS, Colt Python, Franchi SPAS, MP5.

After consulting the experts at GG, we came to a poly range of 1400 -1800 per weapon. All the models in this pack fall within that range. With this level of detail the modeling process has been slow going, but rewarding. I've used every trick I know to push the polys as far as I could...yet I still get that feeling...just a few more would add so much...it's tough to stay within the bounds.

The final stage, applying shaders, has required the most patience and experimentation. After many failed attempts I feel like I have a much stronger understanding of how cube maps interact with geometry, lighting, and masks. By doing little else, a carefully constructed cube map can create the illusion of just about any material. I'm finding that diffuse maps are almost unnecessary in many cases.

Below are stills of the Pistol taken from TSE Show Tool Pro. These are finished, with cube, normal and diffuse mapping. In future updates I'll include video to show off the shaders.




The Bayonet was my R & D shape...I tried a bunch of different treatments to build the stainless steal material. It's still not quite right, but it's getting closer. These two shots are also screen grabs from TST Pro - TSE.




I hope to have an additional update by the end of the month.

Please feel free to throw in any feedback. If you have any comments or questions that you'd like to address to me personally please send them here weston@ffdigital.com

-Weston